Do you know the single most important thing you need to master in order to succeed as a screenwriter? It’s not characters. Or dialogue. Or story. It’s learning how to understand and implement the criticism and critiques of other writers, audience members, agents, executives and actors.

Writers that know how to interpret notes are easy to work with. That translates into more work, more money, and more movies being made.

But notes can be very difficult to understand. More often than not, they’re confusing and contradictory. The people giving the notes don’t necessarily even know what they mean.

In this week’s article, we dive into five common screenplay notes, and what those notes might mean when it comes to the actual words on the page.

1) "Too Slow"

When someone says your script is moving too slowly, that means you have issues with your character’s motivation and desire line. Good protagonists pursue their goals with insane determination, and they don’t take meaningless detours on their way to success. If your character is already driven and passionate about their goal, take a look at the plot in and of itself. Good stories have twists, turns and surprises that jolt you out of your seat. Design a journey that will challenge your hero to overcome their flaw through unexpected situations and your story will pick up the pace.

2) "Too Talky"

This is a common criticism of comedies in particular. Audiences don’t like to feel like they’re just sitting there, watching two people talk. They want to feel forward momentum at all times, otherwise the movie will feel slow (see above). But that doesn’t mean you can’t write a dialogue heavy movie. You just need to make sure that every line expresses a new opinion, and drives the conversation in a new direction. You need to avoid redundancies, and use each line to tell us something new about the story and characters you’re presenting. Similarly, you need to make sure that those conversations are having an impact on the overall plot. People shouldn't be talking unless their conversation is going to move the story forward or change their relationship in a significant way. Every scene should move us forward. So should every line.

3) "Too Much Action"

If you’re writing an action movie, you can’t just toss in a car chase or fight scene for the hell of it. After that car chase, your hero should be somewhere completely new, literally, but also figuratively, and in his relationships with the other characters in the story. If the chase is just there for the sake of the chase, then people are going to fall asleep in their seats. And remember: the audience usually expects that Bruce Willis is going to win when he gets into a fistfight. He’s the hero of the movie, so that makes sense. So you need to build ups and downs into that fight, and maybe let him lose from time to time. Every predictable moment should be undercut, and the audience should always be kept guessing.

4) "Too Meandering"

If people think your script meanders that means it’s episodic. And if your script is episodic, that means that it lacks cause and effect. And if you want your screenplay to have better cause and effect, you should connect every scene by either the word ‘therefore’ or ‘but.’ And if you want to learn more about ‘therefore, but’ you should read this article that we wrote about it early last year.

5) "I Think You should make them both cops and set it on mars"

If people react to your script by suggesting huge, broad changes to the concept, characters or tone, then that means your idea is muddled and you should probably start again from the beginning. This can be hard to hear, but it’s true. When multiple people suggest big changes to your script, that’s because it’s broken. Re-think the concept. Re-think if this is an idea you even want to pursue. And if it is, you probably need to simplify. Get to the meat of what your concept, and toss any needless flourishes away.

Other Notes Decoded

Comment below if there are any other mysterious notes that you’ve gotten, and we can address them in the next article in this series. And if you’re new here, sign up for our email list for free logline notes. Just enter your email in the box below.